Market development

In use in some form for more than a hundred years, hydroelectric power is the oldest electricity generation technology. In 2008, nearly 16 % of the electricity generated worldwide came from hydropower – a total of 3,288 terawatt hours (TWh). However, most OECD countries have already reached the limits of hydropower capacity.

This is reflected in a growth rate of 0.5 % in electricity generation from hydropower between the years of 1990 and 2009 in the OECD, while power generation from other renewable energies grew at a rate of 6.6 % over the same period. In 2009, electricity generated from hydropower in the OECD accounted for around 73 % of the total combined power generation from renewable energies; in the previous year, this percentage was closer to 75 %. Hydropower in the OECD generated 1,287 TWh of electricity in 2009, with the largest amounts of power produced in Canada, the USA and Norway.

Already since 2001, the amount of electricity from hydropower in OECD countries has been growing at a slower rate than in non-OECD countries, where there are attractive conditions for the construction of new hydropower plants. This has led to a rate of increase of 3.7 % in electricity from hydropower in non-OECD countries between 1990 and 2008. Particularly strong growth has been seen in Asia, especially in Vietnam (9.2 %), China (8.9 %) and Myanmar (7 %); in Africa, primarily in Mozambique (24.7 %) and Angola (9.7 %); and in the Dominican Republic (9.3 %).

Latin America is also experiencing a significant increase in power generation. It is expected that the existing potential there will be further developed. The total installed capacity of hydropower in Germany at the end of 2010 was around 4,780 megawatts (MW) from some 7,700 hydropower plants. In 2010, hydropower generated approximately 19,694 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, almost 3.3 % more than in 2009.

Electricity from hydropower accounted for 3.3 % of the final energy consumption in Germany in 2010, the same as in the previous year. The German hydropower industry employed around 7,600 people at the end of 2010. 70 million euros have been invested in the construction of plants.